“What did he say to you?”
Seven looked up from his bed where he was sprawled. Travis had gone home after dinner and he had spent the time since laying on his bed and a contented haze. Chad stood in his doorway, propped against the frame.
“What do you mean?” Seven asked.
Chad walked in a closed the door behind him before he sat down next to Seven on the bed. Seven lay on his back and stared up at his brother with a curious expression.
“When we were talking to you about the father/son baseball game, you were protesting and Travis said something to you then you agreed. What did he say?”
Seven was prepared to argue and tell him it was none of his business, but he frowned, “He said that you guys just wanted me around, which isn’t really true, but Travis doesn’t have a dad. I figured he would love a chance like the stupid game and it would bother him if I just took that for granted, so I agreed.”
Chad frowned and nodded, “Just be careful, Sev. It’s obvious you have really strong feelings for this guy so you need to be sure you don’t let him take advantage of that.”
Frowning, Seven, shook his head, “Travis would never take advantage of anyone.” Chad gave him a questioningly look, so he continued, “Chad, the reason I don’t have any friends isn’t just because I’m and anti-social freak, it’s also because I’m extremely picky about who I associate with. So when I’ve known this guy since kiddy chat rooms in fourth grade and horrendously in love with him, you can be positive that he checks out ok.”
They sat silently for several moments before Chad groaned and flopped next to him so they laid vertically across Seven’s bed top and tail.
“How are you so sure of who you are?”
“What do you mean?” Seven asked in reply to the odd question.
Chad let out a frustrated sigh, “How can you just decide ‘this is who I am so deal with it’? I spent the past year trying to figure out who I am and all I can come up with is ‘Evan’s twin.’ That’s all I am.”
“You’re not Evan’s twin,” said Seven, “You’re Chad.”
“I think I’m a lot more like you than I am Evan. Most days it seems like the only reason I have any friends is because I talk to Evan’s friends and they put up with me.”
Seven snorted, “How did that happen? You guys never talked to me when we were kids and you do even less now.”
“You were our geeky little brother. You still are. That’s the way life works,” Chad said with a small smile. “If we treated you nice, we would be breaking the Older Brother Code.”
Laughing slightly, Seven asked, “So you aren’t breaking the Code now, are you?”
“The Code changes completely when you no longer live under the same roof as the younger brother for more than half of the year.”
“What do you think of Travis?” the younger brother asked, trying to mask the obvious excitement in his voice.
Chad shrugged, “He’s crazy mad tall.” Seven nodded. “I mean seriously, the guy’s huge. He has to duck through doorways practically.”
“Yeah, but what do you think of him?”
“What do you think of him?” Chad asked softly.
Seven smiled broadly, “I think he’s wonderful.”
Nodding, Chad replied, “Then that’s what I think too.”
Frowning, Seven said, “You know, you and Karen have really surprised me these past couple days.”
“How so?”
Seven shrugged, “You guys just never really paid much attention to me before. I thought you didn’t really like me. I just figured the family would’ve been better off if Mom had put me up for adoption or something. But you guys really…. You care about me. And I never knew that before.”
“Course we care about you, Sev,” Chad said, “We teased you out of affection. Those were Wedgies of Love, little brother. Wet Willies of Adoration. Swirlies of Endearment.
“Chad, you killed the moment.”
“There was no moment. You just wanted there to be one. Come down stairs, we’re having an intervention.”
“What?”
“Mom and Dad want to talk about your gaiety.”
Seven rolled his eyes and rolled off his bed, hitting the floor with a thump. Chad stood up and hurried him down the stairs, pushing him when he stalled.
Everyone was sitting in the living room, Evan on the piano bench, Karen in one of the wing back chairs, a chair empty for Chad, and a spot for Seven on the sofa, right between his parents. Sighing, he walked over and sat on the floral print cushions.
“Can we get this over with?” He grunted, “I only have three weeks of school left and I have finals to study for.”
“You wouldn’t be studying even if we weren’t doing this so don’t complain,” Evan said harshly.
“Seven, sweetie,” his mom said gently, “We just want to better understand the situation.”
“What situation? I’m gay. It’s a fact, not a situation.”
“Seven, you can’t tell us that you just woke up one day and decided you like men,” his father argued, “It just doesn’t happen that way.”
“No, Dad, I’ve kept this inside for quite some time now. I’ve known since I was in seventh grade. It did not just happen one day when you weren’t looking. This is who I am.”
“And you’ve assured us that you are not sexually active?” his mother asked cautiously.
“Rub it in, why don’t you?” he said smarmily. Chad chuckled and everyone else in the family glared at him.
“We should talk about this more later,” his father sighed, “For right now I think everyone should go to bed and rest.”
Nodding, Seven stood up and hurried back to his room. He got on his computer and looked through his folder of pictures of Travis, sighing happily before stripping down to his boxers and crawling into bed, looking forward to a night of pleasant dreams.
Meanwhile, Evan and Chad sat in the living room, watching Late Night after everyone else had gone to bed.
“Do you think he’ll be ok?” Chad asked softly, “Seven already gets picked on at school. This will only exacerbate things.”
“Quit using big words like you’re smart,” Evan joked, “This is just a phase. He just thinks he’s gay because he hasn’t had a girlfriend yet. Some chick will ask him to a dance and this whole thing will be over.”
Chad frowned, “How can you just belittle his emotions like that? This is obviously something he’s been struggling with for quite some time and you just blow it off and call it a phase.”
“I call it a phase because it is a phase, Chad,” Evan replied with a snort, “Being gay is just the thing that kids do to be cool these days like hippies in the seventies. It’ll fade out in a year or and he’ll find a nice girlfriend.”
“You sound like some bigoted old man. Sexuality is not just some fad. He obviously thinks this is something important or he wouldn’t have bothered telling us. Why do you always blow off people like that?”
Evan frowned and started channel surfing during the commercial break, “I do not blow off people.”
Chad rolled his eyes, “Yes you do. If it’s a problem deeper than losing a football game, you distance yourself and act like it’ll fix itself. That’s why you last three girlfriends broke up with you. They’d come to you wanting to talk about something and you’d avoid them.”
Turning off the TV, Evan stood up and tossed the remote into his chair, “I’m going to bed.”
Frowning, Chad called, “You just proved my point!” before sitting and thinking about the past few hours in the dark.